Falling Awake

didn’t need a hundred and seventy-six miles an hour,” Ellis said.
    Dave and Vincent watched him expectantly.
    “So how much did you need?” Vincent prompted.
    Ellis shrugged. “A hundred, hundred and ten on the straight stretches was good enough.”
    “But the fog,” Isabel gasped, horrified. “How could you see?”
    “I drove that route once before,” Ellis said soothingly. “I told you that when I drive, I pay attention. Besides, there was no traffic last night.”
    She winced. “Because of the fog .”
    “Yeah, that helped,” he admitted.
    “You know, there’s something really scary about a guy who actually doesn’t have to stop and ask for directions. Okay, what about the wire cutters? How did you get those?”
    “Farrell brought them with him. I called him right after I got off the phone with Dave. He met me a short distance from the amusement park. I took the cutters and told him to come in through the front gate when I gave the all clear. He’s also the one who found out that there was still electricity running into the park. That was when we came up with the idea of starting up one of the rides as a distraction.”
    “Brilliant,” Isabel said. “Any idea why Amelia-Maureen arranged to have my furniture torched?”
    “According to her dream log, someone at the institute mentioned how much you loved it and how you kept it in a self-storage locker,” Ellis said. “She also heard that you had moved it toRoxanna Beach. She realized how expensive it was and how strapped for cash you were. She decided that if you took a major financial hit, you’d be a lot more amenable to the offer of a big pay raise and your old office at the center.”
    Isabel groaned and told herself to let that go, too. She bent to scrape some scrambled egg off her plate into Sphinx’s bowl. “Question number two is for Vincent.” She glanced at him. “Last night when you and I were alone inside the concession stand, talking about your tsunami dream, what was it I said that convinced you to trust me instead of Amelia-Maureen? I mean, I know I have an honest face and I can talk pretty fast when necessary, but I got the feeling it wasn’t just my logic and sweet smile that made you believe me.”
    Vincent watched Sphinx jump down from the windowsill and pad across the kitchen to check out the eggs.
    “I think it was the cat,” he said quietly.
    “Sphinx?” Isabel straightened. “What did he have to do with anything?”
    Everyone watched Sphinx settle down to enjoy his breakfast.
    “The doc told me how you rescued Martin Belvedere’s old cat after Randolph ordered it to be taken to the pound and destroyed. She thought it was a really stupid thing for you to do. It was one of the things that made her think you would be easy to manipulate.”
    “Nice to know I made such a great professional impression,” Isabel grumbled.
    “Last night, while you and I were talking and I was fighting offthe effects of the last dose of CZ-149, for some reason I kept thinking about how you saved the cat,” Vincent said. He stopped, as if he had explained everything, and went back to his food.
    “I still don’t get it,” Isabel said. “Why did that make you decide to trust me instead of her?”
    “I may have been doped up most of the time that I spent around the doc,” Vincent said softly, “but that doesn’t mean I didn’t figure out a few things about her. I knew that if she had been in your shoes, she would have let Sphinx go to the pound.”
    Ellis looked at him. “I take it you like cats?”
    “Yeah,” Vincent said. “I like cats.”

42
    t he good news is that Ellis is okay.” Jack Lawson relaxed into the squeaky government-issue chair and propped his ankles on the corner of his old, battered desk. “He wasn’t obsessing on some twisted Level Five dream, after all.”
    “He was right about Vincent Scargill being alive,” Beth agreed on the other end of the connection. “I’m delighted to know that. I always liked Vince. But it would have been a hell of a lot more convenient if you had picked up on the Maureen Sage–Amelia Netley link a little sooner.”
    “Now, honey—”
    “I told you that woman was trouble.”
    “I know, I should have listened to you,” Lawson said, going for humble because it was his only hope.
    “What’s the bad news?” Beth asked.

    “Actually, there isn’t any bad news today. There is good news and there is more good news.”
    “And the more good news would